parkrun’s role in improving life satisfaction, happiness and mental wellbeing
We’ve long understood that participating in physical activity, such as parkrun, can improve physical and mental health. Today, as we celebrate World Mental Health Day and parkrun’s 21st birthday, we are excited to share our most recent research into these health benefits.
Researchers from Sheffield Hallam University, based at the AWRC, used data from nearly 80,000 parkrun participants to create a new model of life satisfaction that can be used to evaluate initiatives that seek to improve quality of life in the population.
The model found that improvements in happiness, mental wellbeing, and a sense of personal achievement are the strongest drivers of increased life satisfaction in regular parkrunners. These benefits were felt not just by runners and walkers, but also by volunteers, with nearly three-quarters of respondents reporting an increase in life satisfaction.
Those who rated their health as ‘very bad’ before joining parkrun saw the biggest increase. This highlights the importance of inclusive, community-based initiatives that reach people who need them most, including those from deprived communities and those who are least active.
From a public health perspective, these findings are crucial. parkrun is estimated to deliver nearly £700 a year in economic and NHS savings per regular participant, making it one of the most cost-effective preventative health interventions in the UK.
Professor Steve Haake, who led the study, said: “Our previous research showed that life satisfaction increased for those who took part in parkrun – what we didn’t know was how parkrun ‘worked’. This new study has given us an answer to this question and its improvements to mental health including happiness and a sense of personal achievement are more important to this increase in life satisfaction than improvements to physical health”
“These findings confirm what we found in last year’s study – that parkrun is one of the most cost effective and public health initiatives out there and is a model that can be used to evaluate the impact of public health initiatives across the globe, which is vital at time when resources are limited.”